CONWAY — After struggling for much of the game before pulling away late against Williams Baptist on Tuesday, Central Arkansas left no doubt about the outcome on Friday, jumping on top of Blue Mountain College early and pulling away for a 71-30 win in the Farris Center.
"The effort today was a hundred percent better," said UCA assistant coach Destinee Rogers. "We tried to key in on that in practice yesterday, and the girls came out with a much better effort. I'm proud of them for coming out, going hard and getting this win."
The 41-point victory is the widest margin of victory for the Sugar Bears since a 98-36 win against Central Baptist on Nov. 14 of last year and the fourth highest of head coach Sandra Rushing's tenure at Central Arkansas.
The Sugar Bears (6-5) shot a season-high 55.6 percent from the field (25 of 45) while putting the clamps on the Lady Toppers (5-4), who shot just 18.9 percent (10 of 53) – including 12.5 percent (2-16) from 3-point range – the lowest for a Sugar Bear opponent this year.
In stark contrast to Tuesday's game, when UCA trailed for more than 28 minutes, the Sugar Bears led wire-to-wire on Friday, building their largest halftime lead of the season at 37-16 before outscoring the Lady Toppers 34-14 in the second half to top 70 points for consecutive games for the first time since doing so in three straight games from December 2012 into January of 2013.
"We really took our time yesterday, slowing practice down and trying to really make sure they had the mental part of the game," Rogers said. "I think that's very important for this young team going into conference play. They've got to get the mental part down and we're starting to get there."
Kendara Watts led the Sugar Bears in scoring with 20 on 8-of-10 shooting from the field and 4-of-5 at the free throw line, with
Maggie Proffitt adding 17 including shooting 3-of-5 from beyond the arc. The three 3-pointers gives Proffitt 89 for her career, moving her past Megan Herbert and Britney Gowans for 4th place in UCA's Division I history behind Rogers (101), Westin Taylor (139) and MIcah Rice (166).
The Sugar Bears got a big day out of sophomore guard
Kelsey McClure, who played a team-high 34 minutes and logged eight points, seven rebounds, three steals and a career-high 16 rebounds – equaling the highest total for a Sugar Bear since Herbert's 17 at McNeese State on March 2, 2013.
McClure and
Brianna Mullins combined for 11 assists to just three turnovers in the game, more than three times their combined assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.06 to 1 coming in. In all, the Sugar Bears assisted on 21 of their 25 field goals.
"It's huge when you have your primary ball handlers taking care of the ball way," Rogers said. "That's the most important thing. You can't run an offense if you turn the ball over. They did a good job of taking care of it today, and good job by Kelsey getting 16 rebounds."
Mullins (6.1 per game) and McClure (5.6) entered the game as the Sugar Bears' leading rebounders despite being listed at 5-foot-6 and 5-8, respectively.
"They don't care about how short they are or what size disadvantages they might face in a game," Rogers said. "They come in and set a goal – 'we want to get this amount of rebounds' – and they just go out and do it."
UCA will conclude its non-conference slate on Dec. 30 when the Sugar Bears host Austin Peay, then begin Southland Conference play on the road at Abilene Christian on Jan. 3.
